Your Wedding Ring
by Abah
Summary: When the world gave you the worst, but the worst of all is on a small wedding ring.
1. War Never Changes

28th October 2077, two days before Halloween's Eve. Angela Ziegler, a Swiss nanobiologist who at that time married to Jack Morrison, former United States Army soldier, had just bought their new home in Sanctuary Hills, along with their Mr. Handy, Codsworth. They lived happily, and Angela just gave birth to their child, Shaun, several months earlier. As usual, Jack is working on the garage to repair their car for a future trip to other parts of the city or as well as went to another state for leisure. After taking a short bath, Angela went to Shaun's room to greet her newborn baby, with Codsworth beside her. After a quick meet and greet for the day, Codsworth went to the kitchen and brew Angela's Robusta coffee, as soon as she sips her cup of coffee, Jack welcomed her with dirty and sweaty hands. Jack gave her a kiss on the cheeks, wash his hands and get some clean towels. Then followed her to watch their favorite morning show together on the couch. A copy of Grognak the Barbarian seen on the kitchen table, it is Angela's favorite comic.

A Vault-Tec representative knocked the door and offered Angela to live in a vault, to prevent their family from the nuclear apocalypse that sooner or later will likely to happen. Angela agreed to the representative and then close the door immediately to shut him off and never to visit their house ever again. Shortly after, Codsworth told Angela that Shaun is crying and he couldn't handle it with proper maternal affection, Jack stayed on the couch and said to Angela that he'll soon join her in Shaun's room. Angela played with Shaun, and soon he began to laugh as she tickles him on the waist, Jack comes into the bedroom to tell Angela that he already fixed the crib yesterday and telling Angela to gave it a go. Jack knows Halloween is just around the corner and ask Angela for future plans of their cherished time, but instead of taking a walk in the park, Angela prefers to decorate their house with Halloween decorations and focusing more on Shaun and neighbor's children whose likely to get some candy from Angela.

The cherished time seems a distant memory for Angela and Jack as soon as they heard Codsworth shouting from across the living room about the potential nuclear detonation that will strike Boston in no time. Without packing their belongings, they run for the vault with several other residents, few are seen trying to pack their luggage into their cars and went to the other part of the country to make sure they'll make it in time. The gate between Angela and Jack's death is guarded by several soldiers and an officer who had the Vault-Tec resident list for Vault 111, a lot of Sanctuary Hill residents are prohibited from entering the Vault, even the representative that Angela saw earlier. The officer letting them in and they run for the platform… to only see the nuclear already hit Massachusetts.

 _And the platform lowered just in time._

The potential residents are still shaky from the nuclear detonation that almost took their lives, few of them are experiencing trauma and couldn't continue further into the vault for a while. Jack and Angela finally lined up in a queue to get their new clothes and to see their brand new home, the Vault 111. As soon as they get their new jumpsuit, they followed the Vault-Tec doctor to a Cryo chamber, which he stated that to "cleanse" them from the radiation in before they continue further into the vault.

 _It was a lie._

As they lined up to enter their cryo pods, Angela comforted Shaun and telling her baby that she'll be closed, exactly in front of Jack's room. She took a deep breath as she waits for the pod to shut the outer door and they were frozen. Angela knows nothing about space and time, and especially for how long she slept inside the pod. She's awakened by a sound of a mysterious man accompanied by one or two scientists that approached Jack's Cryo pod, they opened it to steal Shaun from Jack, he fought back but to only get himself shot. Angela's eyes are widened, and she took several deep breaths to hold herself together. They said that Angela would be their "backup" if Shaun's pure, unexposed to radiation DNA failed to meet their requirements. The mysterious man re-activate the cryo process and froze Angela for the second time, without Jack accompanying her.

An alarm is set off, and the cryogen process is permanently shut down, and Angela has enough time to get out from the pod as soon as she wakes up. Her legs still stiff and wobbly, but she tried so hard to open Jack's cryo pod. The door took a long time to open, and Angela already cried to the point where giving up is just up ahead. She hugged her frozen husband and took the wedding ring, swore that she'll find their child back and lived happily ever after without him, a life that Angela always wants in a world where… violence is every day's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As she walks through the empty halls, Angela noticed that the insect she always hates is mutated into a bigger one, she took a police baton as her weapon and began to smash it to bits, even it's in small numbers, but that took her life faster than a bullet. As soon as she reaches the Overseer desk, she found a 10mm pistol along with 72 rounds of spare ammunition, and equip it immediately to deal with the cockroaches more efficiently and also faster. She managed to get herself a Pip-Boy, the personal portable computer that will show her natural needs and serve as digital inventory for her and opened the vault door, it takes more than five minutes to get the door opened and to deliver her back to the Sanctuary Hill… or what's left of it.


	2. A Ruined Sanctuary, A Restored Hope

Angela watches the remains of Sanctuary Hills with anger. How could possibly war took her lovely husband and now destroying her own residence? With hesitation, she walks down the path while looking at everywhere, looking at what a nuclear detonation would do to humanity. She has no recall of how long she has slept and what matters is her Shaun still out there, and she promised Jack would bring him back safely. Even if Shaun is dead, at least the corpse of Jack knows that his son is rest in peace, without any harm and physical abuse around his body. Not wanting to equip the vault jumpsuit, she began to search around the neighborhood for a new set of clothes. Angela found a suitcase that contains an Ushanka hat and a suit, it's dirty, but at least now Angela got a brand new clothing instead of that vault jumpsuit. A slight of hope emerged and sparkled on Angela's eyes when she saw Codsworth still fully functional doing the front yard work and mumbling to nothing but himself. She ran and shouted at Codsworth, then she gave him a hug. Not too long after their reunion, Codsworth told Angela how hard he is working the chores, from removing the radiation from wooden floor to cleaning rust. Codsworth gave Angela a box of slightly irradiated Sugar Bombs as a homecoming snack, and he gave her a holotape that contains Jack's appreciation for her graduating from the Law School and eventually received her diploma after endless nights of staying awake late.

Angela kept the holotape in her pocket to make sure that she didn't forget to thank Jack back because of his support towards her degree. Codsworth stated that she's late for dinner almost 210 years. Two centuries and a decade late for dinner, according to the "sophisticated" and "advanced" General Atomics' Chronometer. Angela told Codsworth that Jack is dead, but Shaun is still somewhere out there in the Wasteland. Codsworth said that Shaun is probably around the Sanctuary Hills, but their search led to a cold trail. No sign of Shaun in Sanctuary Hills but only Bloatflies and few Radroaches. Codsworth began to worry about Shaun's condition and offers Angela his help for her quest finding Shaun. She told Codsworth to stay in Sanctuary Hills, on the assumption of something bad happened there and continue her journey all alone, with only two wedding rings – hers and Jack's. The main street where many of the neighbor's children play and having fun together now serve as a trash can to what's left of Sanctuary Hills. Fallen trees, destroyed houses, damaged and rusted cars, mutated insects, torn apart books… and shattered memories of an American Dream.

The beautiful, curved bridge of Sanctuary Hills now unrepairable, but sure it was and is the only entrance and exit to Angela's memories of the past as she walks away from the settlement. She took a spare weapon from a dead raider, it was made of pipe, and several .38 caliber bullets and a tire iron stuck into a dead, rabid mongrel. Angela stripped out the Raider's clothes and put it on her body. _An extra defense against enemies, it's not quite fit, but sure it blocks bullets._ Angela thought to herself after putting the Raider clothes on.

She found an abandoned gas station and began to search for supplies and proper armor, if available. But, instead of that... she found a lonely German Shepherd goes by the name of Dogmeat. Knowing this, there's a spark of hope that... people able to rebuild what have been lost, what have been destroyed... what have been taken from them _forcibly_.

Sanctuary Hills is not that far from Concord, as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by a handful of raiders who apparently attacking someone with a funny hat perching on top of a balcony of the Museum of Freedom. The man with a funny hat seems using a modified musket... with lasers. It wasn't a very effective means of defense against the Raiders who use a lot of Pipe SMGs and short, double-barreled shotguns. Angela arrived right when the battle is at its peak and gladly lend a hand for the man. After looting some of the Raiders, the man told Angela to come inside the Museum of Freedom to aid him a little bit more.

 _Some of those Raiders got him surrounded._

Angela, with Dogmeat, eventually barge into the Museum and start to harm anyone who stands in their path, these Raiders is nothing but petty thieves that stole everything at gunpoint from nearby farmers and settlements. Dogmeat wasn't so effective at open grounds, but inside a building like the Museum, he was fast, agile, and ready to munch everyone's neck, snapping them in the process. The Raiders might win in numbers but lose at skills and proficiency of weapon handling. Not a hard job for a former battle medic such as Angela, and accompanied by a German Shepherd... it is surely a nightmare for every Raider.


End file.
